The increase from 32 to 48 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, allowed some countries to qualify for the tournament for the first time. This is the case of Uzbekistan, the second chapter of GLOBO’s “Stories the World Cup Will Tell” series, which shows how the competition can contribute to making known to a wide audience the social, political and cultural contexts of nations little expressed in football.
The Asian country, which declared its independence in 1991, will be the third former republic of the Soviet Union to participate in a World Cup, after Russia and Ukraine. President since 2016, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has made major investments in recent years not only in football, but in sport in general. It is one of the pillars of the process of gradual democratic opening of a country that experienced decades of authoritarianism, allegations of human rights violations, forced labor, repression of opponents and torture, mainly during the mandate of his predecessor, Islam Karimov, who held office from 1991 until his death in 2016.
— It is a country that has done a very good job of conveying this image through sport. Maybe you could call it a “sports wash”, but I don’t know if that’s the case, because it’s still a lot less aggressive. This is another internal investment. It is a process of transformation of the country, which was more closed, more clearly repressive and which opened up, managing to change its economy and investing to become a sporting power — explained journalist Carlos Massari, of the Copa Além da Copa podcast, which analyzes sport, culture, history and society.
In addition to its unprecedented qualification for the 2026 World Cup, Uzbekistan also hosted the Futsal World Cup in 2024 and achieved a historic result at the Paris Olympics. He placed 13th in the overall medal standings, the highest ranking in the post-Soviet era. There were eight gold medals, two silver and three bronze. Performances were driven by combat sports: five gold medals in boxing and medals in wrestling, judo and taekwondo.
Much of this sporting development involves the improving economy under Mirziyoyev’s government. Rich in resources such as oil, natural gas, coal and gold, Uzbekistan sees its economy improve year after year – and its trend is for continued growth. Based on this and the fact that this Asian country has always appreciated football, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev decided to invest in this sport.
The cheer in football is so great that the president of Uzbekistan paid tribute to the national team for its unprecedented qualification for the World Cup. Each player was presented with a car, as well as medals and commemorative plaques honoring merit.
One of the stars of the team that guaranteed Uzbekistan the World Cup is 21-year-old defender Abdukodir Khusanov, signed by Manchester City in early 2025 for 40 million pounds sterling (nearly 300 million reais, at the price at the time). Also standing out is striker Shomurodov, who plays for Istanbul Basaksehir, on loan from Roma, and is the team captain.
The Uzbek team is also progressing on the pitch and has achieved a series of 21 matches without defeat, between September 2023 and November 2024, with 14 wins and seven draws. They lost to Qatar 3-2 and went on another 11 match unbeaten streak, until being beaten by Uruguay on the October 2025 FIFA date.
Uzbekistan appears in Group K, alongside Portugal, Colombia and the representative of intercontinental repechage 1 (DR Congo, Jamaica or New Caledonia). Qualifying for the 2026 World Cup was a campaign of ten wins, five draws and just one defeat in the Asian qualifiers. The place was booked a round in advance, with a 0-0 draw against the United Arab Emirates securing second place in Group A in the third phase of the competition.
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